Our decennial census form arrived in the mail today, but we already knew it was on the way because last week we got this helpful letter from the Census Bureau, in English and Spanish no less:

The bureau earned well-deserved ridicule for sending a mailing to tell taxpayers they would be getting more mail a few days later. But as unenlightened bureaucrats in government are wont to do, they defended the mailing.

Both the Census Bureau and its federal overlord, the Commerce Department, went so far as to spin the news on the social network Twitter. “Wondering about this week’s Census form mailing?” Commerce said. “Research shows it increases responses by more than 6 percent and could save taxpayers more than $500 million.”

It’s hard to take them seriously, though, when you read news like this:

In March 2008, federal auditors designated this year’s census a “high-risk area” of federal spending. Among the reasons: weak management of Census Bureau purchases, including computers and software, and inaccurate cost estimates.

Adding to that expense, The Kansas City Star found, are 28 million Census mailings that bureau officials and the U.S. Postal Service have agreed will simply be thrown away. That’s right. Of the 425 million pieces of mail that began going out last month, up to 28 million pieces, or about 7 percent, will end up in the nation’s recycling bins.

“That is waste at its worst, and we could have avoided it,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who sleeps on a cot in his office to save money.”

If the government had any interest in saving money on the census, it would put an enlightened redneck like Chaffetz in charge.